Missouri hasn't been putting out any good news

It has taken nearly a decade for St. Louis’ Civilian Oversight Board to find the footing needed to effectively investigate police misconduct and give residents the tools to hold police accountable, says board member Keith Rose. The city established the board in the years following the Black Lives Matter protests in nearby Ferguson, where grassroots organizers amplified calls to end police violence. But the board faced obstacles at every turn, from legal battles with police unions to the police department’s refusal to cooperate with investigations.

[...]

But the state of Missouri is poised to wreck community oversight over policing in St. Louis. Governor Mike Kehoe on Wednesday signed a bill that ends the city’s ability to run its own police department, transferring control to the GOP-run state government.Going forward, the department will be led by a board mostly appointed by the Republican governor. The new law, which passed with the support of police unions, also requires St. Louis to commit 25 percent of its budget to policing by 2028.

  Bolts

They can pay for it, but they can't run it. What a deal.

Cherry on top

 

You can't win

 You can't break even. And you can't get out of the game.

It has taken nearly a decade for St. Louis’ Civilian Oversight Board to find the footing needed to effectively investigate police misconduct and give residents the tools to hold police accountable, says board member Keith Rose. The city established the board in the years following the Black Lives Matter protests in nearby Ferguson, where grassroots organizers amplified calls to end police violence. But the board faced obstacles at every turn, from legal battles with police unions to the police department’s refusal to cooperate with investigations.

“It feels like we only just now got to the place where we have a path to do the work, after delays from lawsuits and police noncooperation. It finally feels like the board is ready to do the work,” Rose told Bolts.

But the state of Missouri is poised to wreck community oversight over policing in St. Louis. Governor Mike Kehoe on Wednesday signed a bill that ends the city’s ability to run its own police department, transferring control to the GOP-run state government. Going forward, the department will be led by a board mostly appointed by the Republican governor.

[...]

There is a dark precedent for Missouri state officials seizing control of law enforcement in this city. On the eve of the Civil War, a secessionist governor took over the local police, worried that the city may otherwise resist his hopes of having Missouri join the Confederacy. He proceeded to pack the new state-run board with secessionist members.

[...]

This state control then remained in place for well over 150 years. Only in 2012 did 64 percent of Missourians approve a measure to let St. Louis, which has a large Black population, run its own police force. The new law overrides that reform, returning control to the state leadership, which is largely white.

[...]

In signing the bill on Wednesday, Kehoe argued that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department will still be run locally because the commissioners he appoints will have to be residents of the city.

  Bolts Magazine

White nationalist residents, and perhaps one black "Uncle Tom". Yes, I know that's offensive. MAGA

Cash poor?

 Most billionaires are probably cash poor.  Who has billions of dollars in cash?  But they have options.  

Still, I don't mind if you keep protesting Tesla.

Defund Nazis!

J6 pardons immediate fallout

The largest police union in the country - the Fraternal Order of Police, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police both denounced Trump’s pardon of J6 insurrectionists. Their joint statement: “Allowing those convicted of crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families.”

More from the statement: “It sends a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe, potentially emboldening others to commit similar acts of violence.”

Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes walked out of prison and was asked by a reporter what he wanted to see happen next. He said that he wanted the Capitol Police officers prosecuted for supposedly lying on the stand in his trial. He specifically mentioned Harry Dunn.

Former Capitol Police Office Michael Fanone was asked if he had anything to say to Stewart Rhodes on CNN: “This is what I would say to Stewart Rhodes - go fuck yourself. You’re a liar.” Since it was live, CNN apologized for the F word.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio walked out of prison and immediately called for Merrick Garland and others to be arrested: “We need people like Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and the rest of the Trump cabinet to right all these wrongs. The people who did this, they need to feel the heat. They need to be put behind bars.”

J6 insurrectionist Vital Gossjankowski also walked out of prison. He tried to attack his judge during the sentencing and had to be tackled and physically restrained by court bailiffs.

  Meidas Touch

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

January 1, 2024

Jesus Tapdancing Christ

The Republican-led Missouri state house on Wednesday voted against banning minors from openly carrying firearms on public land without adult supervision.

The proposal to ban children from carrying guns without adult supervision in public failed by a 104-39 vote. Only one Republican voted in support.

A Democrat, Donna Baringer, said police in her district asked for the change to stop “14-year-olds walking down the middle of the street in the city of St Louis carrying AR-15s”.

“Now they have been emboldened, and they are walking around with them,” Baringer said. “Until they actually brandish them, and brandish them with intent, our police officers’ hands are handcuffed.”

[...]

Republicans for years have criticized [Kim] Gardner, a 47-year-old Democrat first elected in 2016 as St Louis’s first Black female prosecutor.

She is one of several progressive prosecutors elected in recent years with a focus on creating more fairness in the criminal justice system. Republicans say she is not doing enough to fight crime.

  The Guardian

Typical Republican. Shackle Democrats' ability to do anything and then blame them for not doing enough.

I hope police officers who vote Republican remember this when they hear the GOP clamoring about backing the Blue.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

NYC priorities

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to find something similar in most major American cities.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Up in smoke

Decades-old evidence stored inside a New York City Police Dept. warehouse has now been completely destroyed by a fire Tuesday in Brooklyn.

NYPD officials said it will take some time to figure out exactly what was lost and the impact it will have on cold case and cases up for appeal.

  The Hill

Huge, if I'm any judge of the matter.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Welp

OK, I'm worried for this guy now.

Policing in America

Important conversation, lots to think about on this Michael Steele podcast:

Arizona's recording police law

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jesus wept

The victim was identified as Sean Bickings, 34. According to a transcript of the footage provided by the city, Bickings told Tempe police he was drowning and begged officers for help as they stood by and told him they were not "jumping in after you." This portion of the footage was not included in the edited video released to The Arizona Republic.

Since release of the footage, the Tempe Officers Association, the police union for the department, described the drowning as a "human tragedy," but stated officers do not possess water-rescue training and lack equipment to perform water rescues without putting the officer at risk.

[...]

Bickings was an unsheltered member of the Tempe community, the city said in a statement released on Friday.

[...]

The three officers who responded to the incident are currently under non-disciplinary administrative paid leave.

  MSN

This is a police department that could properly be defunded.

Where we're headed

Axon, the company best known for developing the Taser, said Monday it was halting plans to develop a Taser-equipped drone after a majority of its ethics board resigned over the controversial project.

Axon's founder and CEO Rick Smith said the company's announcement last week — which drew a rebuke from its artificial intelligence ethics board — was intended to "initiate a conversation on this as a potential solution." Smith said the ensuing discussion "provided us with a deeper appreciation of the complex and important considerations" around the issue.

As a result, "we are pausing work on this project and refocusing to further engage with key constituencies to fully explore the best path forward," he said. The development was first reported by Reuters.

  NPR

I can tell you what "the best path forward" will be. It will be to go ahead with the project before some other company beats them to it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The story just keeps getting worse

Full thread.

No amount of police funding would have helped this

Law enforcement officers who were in the hallway of a Uvalde elementary school did not breach the classroom that the gunman was in because they thought the children inside were already dead, an official said, even though students were still calling 911 from the classroom.

"The on-scene commander at the time believed that it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject ... [and] there were no more children at risk," Steven McCraw, the Texas Department of Public Safety director, told reporters Friday.

"Obviously, based upon the information we have, there were children in that classroom that were at risk, and it was in fact still an active shooter situation and not a barricaded subject."

It's the latest excuse from law enforcement about the shifting timeline of their response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School, where 19 children and 2 adults were killed.

"When you go back to the timeline, there was a barrage — hundreds of rounds were pumped in in 4 minutes into those two classrooms; any firing afterwards was sporadic, and it was at the door," McCraw said. "So the belief was that there may not be anybody living anymore and the subject is now trying to keep law enforcement at bay or entice them to come in."

  MSN

"May not be anybody living." Pretty sure that means there may BE.

Someone said that with all the updates getting worse and worse, we're about one update away from being told the police themselves slaughtered the kids.

Law enforcement's account of the police response has changed over the days, angering the close-knit Uvalde community.

[...]

Parents outside the school that day told the Wall Street Journal that police were "doing nothing" during the shooting and tried to stop them from entering the school themselves to help their kids.

The New York Times also reported that federal agents who traveled from the US-Mexico border to Uvalde were held back from going into the school by local police when they arrived.

Maybe they should have taken control.

The gunman first entered the school at 11:33 p.m. and began shooting inside one of two adjoining classrooms, McCraw said. Uvalde police officers followed two minutes later, and more officers entered the school as they exchanged gunfire with the shooter.

There were 19 officers in the school hallway by 12:03 p.m., McCraw said. The on-site commander decided that "there was time" to get the keys and wait for a tactical team equipped to breach the door and engage the gunman, he added.

Law enforcement finally entered the classrooms at 12:50 p.m. after getting keys from the janitor, and then killed the gunman.

"With the benefit of hindsight ... of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision," McCraw said.

They didn't need the benefit of hindsight to make that determination. They should have made it by 12:03.

Meanwhile, according to law enforcement's account, children inside the adjoining classrooms were making frantic calls to 911 begging the police to save them.

The first call came in at 12:03 p.m., McCraw said, the same time 19 officers had converged in the hallway. The girl whispered that she was in Room 112. She called back at 12:10 p.m. saying multiple people in the room were dead, and then again at 12:13 p.m. and 12:16 p.m. saying that 8-9 students were still alive.

The caller contacted 911 again at 12:36 p.m. saying the gunman shot the door. At 12:43 and 12:47 p.m., she told 911 to "please send the police now," McCraw said.

Jesus Christ.

"I don't have anything to say to the parents other than what had happened," McCraw said. "If I thought it would help, I'd apologize."

Jesus. Is this the same guy who complained that he couldn't go home and hug his kids because they were working so hard?

Oh, that was Victor Escalon.

"I'm a father. I can't go home tonight and hug my kids. That hurts," Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Department of Public Safety, said during a press conference on Thursday.

Pointing to his colleagues standing behind him, he added: "The members behind me — our family members. Their kids. It's tough. It's hard. But that gives us the motivation to move on to do good work for Uvalde, Texas."

[...]

Escalon made the remarks while providing updates on Tuesday's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, which has left at least 19 students and two adults dead.

  Insider

That guy should lose his job, effectively immediately. Then he can go home and hug his kids all he wants.

UPDATE:

FFS

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Thought police coming

A MICHIGAN STATE POLICE CONTRACT, obtained by The Intercept, sheds new light on the growing use of little-known surveillance software that helps law enforcement agencies and corporations watch people’s social media and other website activity.

The software, put out by a Wyoming company called ShadowDragon, allows police to suck in data from social media and other internet sources, including Amazon, dating apps, and the dark web, so they can identify persons of interest and map out their networks during investigations. By providing powerful searches of more than 120 different online platforms and a decade’s worth of archives, the company claims to speed up profiling work from months to minutes. ShadowDragon even claims its software can automatically adjust its monitoring and help predict violence and unrest. Michigan police acquired the software through a contract with another obscure online policing company named Kaseware for an “MSP Enterprise Criminal Intelligence System.”

  The Intercept

Department of pre-crime.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Ouch

Kimberling, Missouri police department resigns

The whole department.

An entire Missouri police department, including the police chief and his officers, resigned leaving the city of Kimberling without immediate authority.

[...]

What preempted the mass exodus, according to Rader, was Kimberling City Police Chief Craig Alexander’s resignation on Aug. 23. He wanted changes from the town's mayor and he wanted to better himself, Fox News reported.

Soon after, Alexander’s resignation was joined by three officers and a sergeant, with their reasons for quitting being the absence of a police clerk to assist the department, not having qualified officers in the department, and wanting new opportunities with a better pay rate, according to NBC Springfield, Missouri.

  The Hill

Wait a minute. Aren't THEY the officers in the department?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.